Archive for April, 2011



Sumax To Finish Your Engine Anyway You Like

Sumax is one of the pioneers in engine powdercoating and is able to custom color your motor, including oil pump and intake manifold in almost most color you can imagine. For S&S engines, the company offers 3 standard finishes, 2 for the S&S 111″ engine (“Black & Crome” or Candy Red”) and 1 for the S&S [...]

Watch Instantly Sons Of Anarchy On Netflix

Multichannel News is stating that an expanded deal with Twentieth Century Fox adds more content to the service including Sons of Anarchy. Sons of Anarchy airing on FX explores a notorious outlaw motorcycle club’s desire to protect its livelihood while ensuring that their simple, sheltered town of Charming, California remains exactly that. More Fox movie [...]

Spectro Oils

Is 85 MPH The Safest Speed Limit?

I have no clue, but  some studies by traffic engineers would have shown that 85 mph is, believe it or not, the safest speed to travel on any given stretch of road. I just read 2 years ago that Europe, where overall roads and highways have higher posted speed limits, the number of accidents, injured [...]

Apple iTunes

All Big Dog Motorcycles Drivetrain Service Parts Available Directly From Baker

Following the demise of Big Dog Motorcycles as a motorcycles manufacturer, Baker Drivetrain informs all current Big Dog owners at all dealers (ex Big Dog or not) that their service parts and upgrades will continue to be available directly from them for all Big Dog Makes and Models. Whether you need an inspection cover, replacement o-ring, top cover or want [...]

Art Of The Chopper “Haut Moteur” Exhibit. June 24 To October 2, 2011

“Imagine motorcycles, unlike any you’ve seen before, arrayed on pedestals and resplendent in their sculptural variety. These are extravagant mechanical confections. Like Fabergé eggs with engines, they are exquisite yet hard-boiled. Forget bikers. Think Haut Moteur. Just as a couturier’s gown goes from runway to rack with each new season—an archetype of fashion unveiled, so [...]

Motorcycle Parts Website

Big Dog Motorcycles Finally Admits It Was Seized And Forced To Close

Four days after I broke the news that Big Dog Motorcycles was closing, that the lender would foreclose on them, that the company would start calling dealers to inform them, that CEO Sheldon Coleman would create a new company to distribute parts under the name of “Big Dog Performance Parts”, that the new company would [...]

American Express Giftcards

Victory High-Ball. Roland Sands Style.

A video about Roland Sands customizing the new High-Ball. With the Ol’ Vic, Roland is just reinforcing the old look the designers of Victory were after. Minimum modifications (engine & transmission are untouched), hand shifting and retro cosmetic touches through accessories and paint color.

American Express Giftcards

20th Anniversary Los Angeles Calendar Motorcycle Show & Calendar Girl Music Festival

It will happen July 16th, 2011  at the Long Beach Queens Mary, but in a new location and with lower admission prices.  as the LA Calendar Motorcycle Show celebrates its 20th Anniversary! The Calendar Show moves from the Queen Mary Event Park of the past years to dockside next to the historic Queen Mary ocean liner [...]

Fall TV

MeanStreet Products Introduces the Newly Refined Avalon Springer

Very sleek and a work of art under any angle the Avalon front end has always been the most radical Springer front end available to the custom builder. MeanStreetProducts re-introduce an evolved version keeping the same stunning lines sculpted out of billet aluminum with a touch of steel, but now fitted with new Progressive Suspension [...]

iTunes & App Store

Choppers Built With Conviction…In Prison.

Keeping inmates busy doing something useful, providing them the skills to successfully re-enter societ and letting them make some money should always be a top priority. Many programs with these objectives already exist in prison and correctional facilities. But until today I didn’t know that such programs could include building chopper motorcycles. At least one correctional [...]

Auto Parts Warehouse

Word Mark STURGIS® Gets Federal Trademark Registration

I can’t believe that until now the  STURGIS® Word Mark in connection with Sturgis® Rally goods and services was not protected by a Federal Trademark Registration. Now it’s done. Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, Inc., owners of the portfolio of Trademarks and Service Marks related to the world famous Sturgis® Motorcycle Rally, announced today that its word [...]

The Secret Life Of Cole Foster

Son of legendary drag racer, builder and tuner Pat Foster, Cole spent his youth always close to his father that he idolized, hanging around, observing and learning how to fabricate motorsports stuff, always keeping an open mind to everything, from race cars to hot rods to motorcycles. Owner of Salinas Boyz Customs, Cole Foster is in business since close [...]

New Headwinds 2″ Revolver Spotlight

Lighting far down the road is the purpose of a pair of spotlights. Headwinds just released this new model called Revolver (because of its billet aluminum housing featuring polished gun-like grooves) equipped with a 35W halogen narrow flood lamp helping you to light up both the road and its shoulder. Internally threaded and featuring a [...]

I want My Shovelhead. Pleasing The Queen In Green And Pink

This is the story of a biker forgetting to pick up his FLH in a bike shop during more than 4 years, of the shop owner’s wife wanting it for her and getting exactly what she wanted, in fluo green and pink. Warning to all those who don’t pay their bill when their bike is [...]

New Harley-Davidson Edge Light For Sportster And Dyna Models

The new Harley-Davidson Chopped Fender Edge Light ($89.95 for Sportster and Dyna models) combines running and brake light functions. The bright, fast-acting LED lamp glows red when the ignition is on, and intensifies when the brakes are applied. The low-profile lamp is contoured to hug the curve of chopped rear fenders. Fits 2004-later Nightster®, Iron®, [...]

Custom Chrome International Bike Show Series Continues In Pennsylvania At the Sturgis Road Show Championship

Amateurs and professional Custom Builders, it’s your last one chance for 2011 to compete in the USA for the Custom Chrome Championship Series. Coming off of the highly successful North American Championship and the Custom Chrome Europe Championship just completed this past week, East Coast and Mid West bike customizers will now get their chance [...]

Twin Cam Engine Piston Jet Testing

There is no doubt that the lifeblood of your Harley-Davidson’s Twin Cam engine is its oiling system. Crucial to oiling yet often overlooked are the piston jets. Located deep inside the engine cases it’s hard to verify whether the piston jets are functioning properly. JIMS® new Piston Jet Test Stand allows engine builders to test [...]

Exclusive. Big Dog Motorcycles Is Closing.

Another very sad day in the motorcycle industry. Last week I was informed that Big Dog Motorcycles laid off or furloughed a few more workers and that the company would probably close its doors in the next few days. This morning, Big Dog Motorcycles started to call its remaining dealers to inform them that they [...]

The Story Of Snatch. 2nd Place Custom Chrome North America Championship.

Very few Custom Builders, as talented as they can be, are comfortable at verbally expressing their motivations when starting a project and even less at explaining the many options they had and at justifying the choices they made all along the fabrication process. 35 years old Satya Kraus from Kraus Motor Co. could talk during [...]

Interesting Wheel Chock From Harley-Davidson

Securing your motorcycle in upright position either for storage, service or transportation is an issue for all bikers. And you may know that dropped bikes are a somewhat frequent occurrence… Harley-Davidson just released this Cradle Wheel Chock ($249.95) holding a motorcycle securely on the ground, on a trailer, or in the back of a pickup [...]

Georgia Bikers Continue To Protest Motorcycle-Only Checkpoints

Last week, bikers from around the State of Georgia rode to the Capitol revving their engines against a federal grant the Georgia State Patrol is using to conduct motorcycle-only safety checkpoints. Protest was about denouncing the checkpoints as unconstitutional and came two weeks after the state patrol conducted motorcycle checkpoints on Interstates 75 and 95, [...]

Not The Joke Of The Week

Custom motorcycle builders receive strange and funny requests. I decided to share with you one of them I just received. I still didn’t reply, but you can write in comments the reply you would like me to send back to him. I will email your best (funniest) ones… From:  Thomas M. Hirschmann (email address removed for [...]

Best Custom Bikes At Custom Chrome International Bike Show Series European Championship (Part 2)

Beginning of the week, I published pictures of some of the winners of the Custom Chrome Europe Show (13th edition) held last weekend in Mainz, Germany. More than 120 custom bikes were competing from as far as Lithuania and Norway for a total prize awards of € 50.000! Below is the complement list of winners, [...]

Trick New Trike Wheels By Performance Machine

Motorcycle aftermarket wheels leader Performance Machine entered the trike market in 2010 with their new Forged Trike wheels. They are the first of their kind to be manufactured for Harley-Davidson, Honda Gold Wing, Victory and other select OEM trike applications. PM is also currently developing wheels for Lehman’s new Kawasaki “Storm” trike, which will be [...]

Hollywood Style Bigwheel Trike

It comes from the shop of the usual suspects for this type of machine, Shanon & Marc Parker at Parker Brothers Choppers, the duo who brought to you the Tron Cycle Light bike. It’s not a toy, not a ”green” e-trike (it’s powered by a Harley Evo 80″), will never be street legal (rear steering by [...]